Endings Aren't
by Ahh The Fallen
Summary: Link and Zelda have an intertwined fate, but there's a chilling sadness to it that undercuts their relationship. This explores those comings and goings. The story is mainly set in Hyrule, but it neither begins nor end at kingdom's edge.
1. Something Naked this way comes

"There's an old saying", said the old man, "a boy will rush in with no sense in him at all. He will bite, scratch, and otherwise commit himself to more foolish deeds than he should. And if you ask him if it's for a girl, he will say it is, puffing his chest at you, perhaps even playing with the hilt of a knife. And you can say, boy, where is this girl? I do not see her. He will stop playing with his knife, his chest will collapse, and you can tell in his eyes that he still sees her. That's how you can he's still a boy. A man will stab you."  
  
The children around him stared, mouths wide open, ready for the hook that wasn't coming. Failing to hear anything interesting, they found reasons to play tag. The old man sighed and watched his grandchildren play in the field. A horse whinnied off in the distance. His ears turned his eyes to a nearby forest, where a boy was sleeping, just beyond sight.  
  
And now. Head In Hand..  
  
Grass itches. Sleeping in it, rolling down it, sitting in it.it was botany gone awry often, early, and in this case, in Link's eye.  
  
Unsheathe your sword, heart racing, and look in the direction your horse's head was pointed. Now, after a few seconds of checking each direction, get up slowly. Find a tree, and relieve yourself. Keep your eyes steady, checking the direction. Finally, scratch your irritated eye.  
  
Every noise was a skull kid. Every rumble was a moon getting uncomfortably close. Forest spirits gather, and in no time you're a walking oak bagpipe.  
  
This routine was Link's morning start. It made them interesting enough.  
  
~Some of the nice things about setting off on a quest to the unknown is that you'll see interesting things. You'll meet interesting people. The sun will put color in your face and the rain will clean the stink off your green tunic.  
  
Some of the bad things about setting off on a quest to the unknown is that you'll see a lot of boring things. You'll meet people that want to kill you. The sun is hot, and the rain, while very refreshing, cannot help the fact that your tunic isn't green anymore.  
  
Link's morning routine of blind, spar-ready paranoia helped to quash any discernible misery that might have otherwise crept up. The relief that followed left him energized and ready to take on another day.  
  
Link and Epona made a run towards a clearing. Running as fast as he could, Link finally jumped on as the light of forest's exit surrounded them. The clearing was the end of the forest, an old hunter's path to what appeared to be the edge of the world. Snowcapped mountains and a decent vertical ascent down the countryside and towards them at speeds that only younger hooves could take. The sheer thrill, what's at the bottom?  
  
Further and further down the hill Epona went. She disliked forests, while Link preferred them. His tunic itching, Link threw it off, screaming at the wind, at the edge of the world, completely insane. Quite a sight, naked fairy boys charging down the hillside, screaming at mountains.  
  
A creek neared and Link's thirst dawned upon him. Two other great things about taking on great explorations by yourself: tunics can be optional, and the world is your buffet. The bad part is, you didn't pack a big enough lunch.  
  
The two settled near a large bank. and Link dunked his head in. Drinking it in, he heard a garbled scream.  
  
Lack of tunic notwithstanding, Link was in a battle stance. He heard something. He didn't like it. Rustlings, from down the hill further. Muffled.  
  
Sword drawn, he charged head on. A large man, bearded and was holding a young girl in light blue gown under an apple tree. She kicked him square in the stomach and received worse to the face. Holding her against the tree, he caught a glimpse of a naked boy charging on horseback, holding a sword high and slightly askew that, while not directly asking for your head, certainly implied such.  
  
Sweat had made the man appear like a suckling pig with loose trousers. He threw a small blue incendiary device Link knew well from a distance. Turning to avoid the explosion, dirt undercut the ground, throwing horse and rider on their side. The man had grabbed the girl, and had made a run. In the mix of settling dirt and grime, Link caught a glimpse of the girl's face. Fearful, clutching tightly, being led off.  
  
An unusually dark afternoon flashed into Links mind. Another girl flashed before him. Something had boiled over. His sword glinted in the daylight, an amazing flash of lightning flew forth and sent the man and the girl in opposite directions.  
  
Link drew himself up. He wasn't sure what had happened, but figured it was better to put forth an air that everything was going exactly as one had planned it. Pointing the tip directly at the man seemed appropriate.  
  
The preening to the situation wasn't entirely necessary. The man writhed in convulsions and pain, smoke rising from his clothes.  
  
The girl had taken the opportunity to run, upwards towards a crater, and onto a startled Epona. Holding her mane tightly, she whispered something, and Epona went for the mountains.  
  
Link's confusion had developed into a mountain itself. His first instinct was to get to his horse.  
  
Holding his chest, the man held himself up to see a naked Hylian who had done something very close to killing him running in a completely different direction. Contrary to popular beliefs, he had found grass most comfortable. 


	2. Plot and Biscuits are tasty

Down down down down the hill, Epona wisely and cleverly went through a bed of rocks, strung on a thread of words that would lead her anywhere. Where horse and rider began was not a matter for eyes or sane minds.  
  
For both could see, hear, and feel. But it was one entity, one mind. You couldn't tell it unless you were able to get up close and see that bits of horse hair were growing slightly on the rider's fingers, and that human flesh had splotched under the horse's mane. Not without irony, that skin had goose bumps.  
  
Down and Down, For he was busy getting lost Yet down the hill he went after, Frustrated, caked in mud, naked and desperate, His horse now dotting the horizon, racing clouds.  
  
Songs are told of such tales, and will probably always be. Fatalism aside, Link's slowing pace was catching up on him. Leaning against the hilt of his sword, he breathed in deeply several times before exhaustion and depression kicked in. An odd thought entered his head at this precise moment, about a girl in white whose eyes. and he drifted down the sword and into the long grass.  
  
Time washed over Link. No thoughts entered his brain. Somewhere in a field many distances from here, a girl whose eyes seemed to take over a room from all previous sources of light, and whose beauty was destined to bring kingdoms to their knees if only her drive hadn't done so first stood up and felt the wind head towards the east.  
  
A wet tongue licking his face woke him up. Annoyingly so, into his nostrils. He reached up, grabbed his sword and hyperventilating, and drew his sword upon his own horse. within a hair of slicing open her open. Frozen, horse and rider looked at him. His hyperventilating scared them; the desperation in him filled the mountainside. He looked in all directions. Eyes in all directions, fear had smacked him in the face.  
  
"I'm sorry, I-"  
  
"You should be sorry!" snapped the girl; oddly enough Epona's mouth seemed to move in tandem. Link, too tired, stressed, and on edge to think of anything coherent, chose this precise moment to realize he was rather naked.  
  
Trying to cover your naked self is awfully similar to trying to make love to a small rhinoceros. There's a lot of fumbling, frequent gasps of horror and amazement, and lots of awkward posing. Most important, though, is the nagging feeling that nothing none of the above will remotely answer anyone's questions. Rather, even if they'd speak to you again, you're not sure you'd want to associate with anyone who would.  
  
"Stop, it's nothing I haven't seen before."  
  
Link covered himself, not ironically, with his sword. She threw in disgust at him a brown sack. Looking at it, he realized this was the pathetic remnants of his kokiri past. Two sizes too small, it fit him haphazardly, but for now it served its urgent purpose.  
  
The mysterious rider on the horse stared at him. Her eyes had no pupils, and her pale skin could be described as hinting at purple the way snow hints at twilight. This prolonged contest continued for a bit. Link was a bit unnerved, but felt too embarrassed to protest this particular awkward moment. She relented, and she and Epona turned to a mountain.  
  
Link stood there for a moment. The situation had yet to wash over him. And in case it was about to, not moving seemed like the best procrastination possible.  
  
"Aren't you coming?" said the girl, not bothering to so much as turn around. Link followed. Link would later recall that she said this with a hint of incredulousness, instead of disgust. This was profound to him, well, because sixteen year old boys are rarely proud of their naked ass.  
  
This mountain was not impressive. Compared to its brothers that held tighter circles, this purple rock had sat on the range's outskirts. Not particularly tall, it hadn't even a dusting of snow at the top. Calling it a mountain too required a stretch of the imagination, but not by much. For it was as just as much a mountain as the towering peaks that gave way to its own personal evening in the mid afternoon. A small, cobblestone dwelling sat near it's summit, surrounded by shadows more often than the sun's own cheerful and warm opinion.  
  
If anything would lay evidence that this was a mountain, the long unimaginative journey to the tiny house was thusly exhibit A. The lack of sunlight brought Link to a shiver. Investing in a pair of slacks, even tights (he hadn't minded them, once) would become a prerogative.  
  
The girl dismounted the horse, and creaked open it's ancient grey door. It looked as though it was stone and brittlecake all at once, and it made a noise that protested movement as if wresting a sleeping child on happier mornings. Epona made her way for a long forgotten feed bin, but laying a finger on her head, the girl led the horse inside. Link was hoping the interior would be warmer than the mountainside, but found it much of the same.  
  
He moved for a small fireplace, and had happily figured out many years ago how to start a fire, until the mysterious girl hit him with a stick. "Don't start a fire! Don't do anything!" She opened a small chest and withdrew many dark blue blankets. She forced them into Link's confused arms.  
  
"Don't start a fire. I've worked too long for you, of all people, to give me away." Her eyes had nearly glowed in the premature twilight. The blankets felt as if they were covered in both hair and dirt, the former to a point and to completion with the latter. The urge to sit spilled over Link, as well as the urge to breathe with his mouth, to avoid the foul smell playing his nose with a bad joke.  
  
Link felt somewhat comfortable. The girl took out an errant package of biscuits from the same chest as the foul blankets. They were hard, and split them she had to hit it against a partially broken table. She threw one at Link, and the other half of hers she gave to Epona. It was oddly chewy, thought the hylian, for something so hard. Epona gnawed quietly, happily enjoying her treat. It wasn't carrots, but few things were these days.  
  
The girl settled in across from Link. Crumbs and saliva hit him as she spoke. "I suppose you're wondering why you're here.", and she waited a long time for a reply, before intentionally letting a chunk flew at Link when she next spoke "You rarely speak anymore, do you?"  
  
"---no."  
  
"Well cork that," she snapped, "few things are more repugnant than a man who keeps his thoughts for himself. I happen to find it greedy, and I have just so happened to have shared my meal with you. So beg my pardon, but I'm feeling the situation is askew."  
  
"But I saved you, when that man."  
  
"That thing you call a man wanted to do many bad things to me, none of them are my fault. Besides, he wouldn't have gotten very far. As far as you saving me, I don't think you quite get how indelibly stupid your chivalry was."  
  
"He was going to take advantage of you."  
  
"You're one to talk." Link realized she had only the silk blue gown on, while he was rather cozy. Smelly, but cozy.  
  
"I'm sorry," attempted the boy, "but how is it you met that-" Link hesitated, trying to become an eloquent expert at this sort of thing, struggled to find a word and, ah yes, "bastard?"  
  
"I reminded him of a girl he raped and killed. One might say he saw many of the same things in her as he did in me. He never really took the time to find out if she was alive or not, and felt that if she had indeed come back, that she was looking good enough for another shag."  
  
"How is it you reminded him of her?"  
  
The girl hesitated. Her hands trembled, and Link, while not astute to the ways women worked, certainly knew when he wasn't going to help the situation with more questions He decided to let it drop. "My name's Link."  
  
"I know, Link, you're a hylian, an orphan," she said this all exasperatedly, as if listing the ingredients for soup for a neighbor when all one wanted to do was sleep, ". and let's not forget your most interesting title, the Hero of Time. An interesting title, that." Her voice perked up a bit at this final moniker, and a small smile glinted at Link. "My name's Terryn."  
  
"How do you know all that?"  
  
"I know a lot, fairy boy, because I stop and listened to the tales that have come my way. I paid close attention to the details. I felt the stories. but there is some doubt in my mind as to what happens next. which, Link, am where you probably fit in."  
  
The boy shrank into the hairy blanket, shivering liberally, preparing himself for what may happen next. She seemed to speak past him, rather than directly at him. "You should take me to the Kaer."  
  
"The Kay-urr?"  
  
"Yes, that. you're going to take me there in the morning. It's not that far, but I don't think I'd go there by myself."  
  
".why?"  
  
"Some of us have better relations with those who dwell in the forests than others. Personally, I'd prefer to go it alone, but since you're here, one should make the best of things."  
  
Link thought for a good amount of time at what this all meant, but he felt that it wasn't going to get him very far. The classic bit of standing and remaining silent seemed to be the best agreement/argument he could hope to muster.  
  
And so, after a short amount of time, the day slipped into an evening gown and the sun went out. The girl fell asleep. Epona walked around the house a few times appreciatively, sniffing various furniture and cracks in the floor. Soon after, a little hylian boy had a very good night of sleep. Whatever the Kaer was, the sheer naïve thought was enough for that night to keep him from dreaming. 


	3. mushroom mushroom

And in his dreams, he felt as though he was sitting in a warm field eating an apple that was a few days past ripe. The sun was hot and soured the apples ever so slightly before he took the next bite. Six red riders were letting their horses drink at a nearby stream, and neither he nor they paid close attention to the other. He kept looking towards the south, towards the Kokiri Forest, expecting something to emerge from it. And then, as a summer's rain fell against a clear sky and misted his face, a figure on horseback was coming closer. And the mist grew denser, and the world turned into a very grey thing indeed.  
  
He woke up with a wad of hairy blanket in his mouth. The cold dank room looked older in the sunlight. No time of day was kind to the shelter, but in the darkness the cobwebs, rust, and the bone-like qualities of the wood had a slight chance of being ignored. In morning's sun, the room looked frozen and all the more miserable. A skeleton that had seen too many seasons and not enough worms  
  
He looked outside and the girl had on a dark green cloak, and sat atop Epona. She was looking at Link reproachfully, and he was certain that he had overslept, and she most certainly had not gotten so much as a wink.  
  
"We'll ride shortly to the Kaer. It's east of here, in the Granell Swamp", she mouthed with certainty in Link's mind. A tickle of a thought chilled his head, and he recoiled. He couldn't shake the feeling something very violating had happened, but the light outside was surely warmer a thought than any he would have inside.  
  
"I think we should both ride Epona. She's strong enough for two.", Link said as he fitted a malformed boot to his right foot. It had a hole coming along, and he could see the pink of his big toe, peering through the darkness to see if it was alright to come out. A  
  
"Oh, well, that shouldn't be a problem. There's just one thing, Link."  
  
"Sure, what is it?"  
  
"Don't touch me."  
  
".Excuse me?"  
  
"I said, don't touch me." Her command was a threat. Perhaps thoughts of the old man had filled her with terror. Perhaps the thought of another person touching her filled her with stress. He didn't like talking much, and perhaps she felt similarly about physical conversation, perchance to even a greeting. "Alright," he said, "I won't touch you."  
  
"You had better not, fairy boy. Don't.", she said. She clutched hard at her robe, and looked away from him with obvious disgust.  
  
Link approached Epona, who startled and almost threw off Terryn. It whinnied and kicked back its heels at him. Something was wrong. In all their travels, Epona had never startled at the notion of him coming near. It took some coaxing for him to get on, as well as a gentle tap to the horse's backside with the blunt part of a sword sheath, and for the rest of his journey Link felt like less a proud rider but as a reticent master.  
  
Little was spoken by either for the journey. Terryn's speech came mostly in "go left's" and "go right's" and "stop jostling, idiot's". When the ground became dead and jagged, even a slow pace was made erratic. She placed her hands on Link's side only after she almost fell off. Well, it was the second time this happened. She made clear to grab his nappy tunic, and not to him.  
  
Link followed a small winding creak east. "We should rest", he said. This ride was not comfortable, and the sun overhead had begun marching back down the terrestrial plains for the night.  
  
"I do not want to stop" Terryn said. "This land is not kind to travelers."  
  
"Only for a moment, I need a drink. What's the harm in that?"  
  
Terryn sighed. "We need to find out where we are."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"When I asked you to make that first left, I think we were supposed to go right."  
  
"But that was only one turn, does it make all that little difference?"  
  
"I don't know where we are," she admitted, "and I do not know the way from here."  
  
"I don't think we should be turning back, I think we can get back on the road." He didn't, actually; his real motive was hence, "But first, a drink?"  
  
Terryn hesitated and let loose her grip on his tattered garment. He slowed, and walked awkwardly on the tiny pebbles that gathered around the bank. The boy looked to the mountains they had spent the remainings of the morning traveling down, and watched as the creek flowed towards the peak. Saddle sore and confused, he scooped up the water in his hands and drank generously.  
  
Link drank for a while, and began to walk back to the horse, when he hiccupped and fell to his knees. The world began to spin. He saw the bank, and screamed, "This river is flowing uphill! Towards the mountains!" Link was startled that his reflection seemed to be moving impossibly towards the summits, then reappearing in front of him, looking startled and frightened, headed for imagined gallows. Then the reflection would be torn up the river, mouthing pleas of mercy towards the lad. And again and again this happened. The image shouted at him to go fuck himself as it went up the mountain pass. Link looked away, completely assured he had gone mad.  
  
He flung himself to the ground, and began to fitfully roll around. He wasn't sure which way was up, if he was a fish out of water, a bird in it, or a man whose eyes had unfocused and decided taking in everything as a singular experience with no ground for pretense.  
  
"Link!" Terryn shouted, running to him and trying to raise him to his feet. "You stupid fairy boy, I told you not to drink the water."  
  
"Buh. Buh." Link sputtered, his internal sense of movement allowing him to finally make a sound. Terryn shifted his weight onto her left shoulder, pushing him and keeping him steady by clawing at his tunic.  
  
"You're not supposed to meddle with things you do not know, bo-", and that's when she screamed as his weight shifted and he tried to grab onto her hand. Horrified, she darted back. He found air, and soon his body again found the earth.  
  
Spitting dirt from his mouth, Link tried several times, finally succeeding on the fifth try, to say "I think I'll have to get up on my own."  
  
He warily got to his feet, yet his body felt as if it was submerged, a loose and unpredictable thing in a current. Reacting to unseen currents, his arms moved all about him, and his head turned with similarly drunken whimsy.  
  
Epona approached Link, and after sniffing him for a moment, moved close enough for him to get on. He clung to her hide as if it anchored him, and he stayed there breathing heavily into her mane.  
  
"If. if we were on. if we were on the right path, which way would we go?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"I said,"gulped the hylian boy "what would we do next?"  
  
"Well," she began to think. "If we were on the right path, that would be a dying forest up head, so I think we'd turn right to a bridge. But that bridge isn't here, obviously.  
  
Link looked up at her general direction "And where should this forest be?" She pointed to her right.  
  
He held tight and muttered "We're going left."  
  
The trio moved left down a fork, then left at an abandoned shack. Then left again. Every now and then Link would ask her which way to go, and they would go the opposite way. Soon they passed a dead forest, where the sound of snow falling could be heard, but never seen. And then to a decaying bridge, carved of a yellow (or yellowed) stone that, on its bases, had four statues of giant warrior livestock. One a bull, one a swine, one a chicken, and one a ram. They were carved ornately with the features of men holding spears. Dressed as proud warriors, with the exception of their noble faces, animals with human expression. Most of the swine's face was missing, and the bull had only one horn left.  
  
Link put into his head that they were gods once. Terryn hummed a once popular tune. As they walked across the bridge, it became more foggy.  
  
"Where to now?," asked Link. His head was still roiling with the ill effects of his thirst. The thick fog made him cough, but it did clear his sinus. He wiped it on his dirty left bracer. Terryn thought again, and said right.  
  
Some time to the left, the fog began to lift. The trio stopped at what was around them. A densely packed forest, with trees the size of castles, thousands of smaller trees all around. It was hard on many of these smaller trees to see their top, as they towered well over the thicker ones. It was if the big hulking trees were mashed down from the taller ones. Link gulped for air.  
  
He had seen a giant tree like those around him, but these squatting giants didn't give off an aura of life the way an old friend had. They had found themselves in something of a clearing.  
  
To their back was a path, and around them was a circle of trees. Link's head rolled with the creation around him. Terryn got off the horse, scratched her head, and walked to the edge of the clearing. She came back with several finger sized reddish mushroom. It was a coppery color all over, with crimson blotches veined in its stalk. Link's eyes had barely took their time in looking at them before she took them all in her hands again.  
  
"What" was about all he could muster as she took the mushroom in her hand and smashed it, let it ooze through and throughout her fingers. And then, with mushrooms coating her hands, she took an oozing blob of it and forced it inside Link's mouth.  
  
He stumbled off the horse. It tasted as copper as it looked. He started to vomit, hard and fast. First the mushroom, then clear water. It seemed like more water than he had drank, a boy that became a fountain. More water than he was built to hold, it seemed. The last bits drained from his lips. And he felt himself fall head first into a terrible puddle. He pulled himself up, feeling better than he had all day, and saw Terryn smiling. "You knew this was going to happen."  
  
"Very good, fairy boy. You passed." She walked over to him, and using her green cloak brushed his cheek with her hand. "You're really going to be the one to save her, aren't you?"  
  
Link turned crimson. At that moment, a shrill woman's laughter traveled by tree and echoed around the clearing. It sounded like the raucous giggle of a woman making love. It was coated with stress and sweat. It was the kind of laugh that knew it would soon wane to a smile through a bitten lip. Terryn took her hand again to Link's face, and pointed his head to the right.  
  
There, sitting on top of Epona, was a fairy creature. Her scant yet curved body lightly radiated green, and it was as much a woman's body as it was that of the pixie, in a silver gown. Her hair was blue, or was it red, or green. Link heard music when he tried to tell. Her wings didn't move when she came towards him. But she floated, acknowledging Terryn, "Terryn.". And then it said, in a deep womanly voice most men dare not dream about, "Good morning, fairy boy". Link blinked, and when he opened them he was in the Kaer. 


	4. my head hurts

Link had been to the temples of fairies before. They were black things, surrounded by a blue light, and water. There was always water, and the fairies would spring out of the water. He set in his head as a youth that they were thusly aquatic creatures, not so much flying in the air as jumping out. His personal fairy, one called Navi, told him that was the stupidest thing she ever heard. It was one of the few times he tried to converse with her, and proved to him why he rarely did.  
  
The Kaer was different. Water flowed but never pooled. It flowed lit by blue, by yellow, by reds and purples, and greens, and then all and none of those colors at once. The darkness reflected the colors off the black walls, like fire on coals. Before long Link could see it was not a temple so much as a catacomb. Stairs blue as evening snow connected platforms, going both up and down. Those bases were of different sizes, each made of rock. They seemed tethered not by stairs or a common formation, but rather by the fact that each had water flowing onto one another. Link could see nothing else that could be holding them up.  
  
"Terryn", he whispered to no avail. She was not at his side. Neither was Epona. He found himself surrounded, however, by fairies. Pixies surrounded him and danced about him. They were so small he couldn't see what the looked like, but he heard a little girl's giggle a thousand times over in his ear. He felt a wash of comfort, of grime being lifted from his face.  
  
A fairy off in the distance, as best Link could tell, was lifting a large metallic rupee with some difficulty. She moved up very high in the catacomb and held still, and as it fell through the catacombs, it produced a steady beat.  
  
Plunk.  
  
Plunk.  
  
Plunk.  
  
Plunk. plunk.  
  
Plunk.  
  
Plunk-plunk, Clang.  
  
And then the sound grew, with cadence, rhythm and addictive clangs and shutters. Some fairies decided to hum at points, then they dropped off as another group would have a turn.  
  
Link's face turned to a smile, a stupid happy grin. The fairies that danced around him stopped, and showed forth a tiny table. Link drooled some mud and some mushroom. On the table were cured meats, rice, roasted deku nuts, smoked fish stuffed with what he could discern were fruits he hadn't seen before, and an unmarked bottle of wine. "Eat with us," said a little girl's voice in Link's ear. He nodded. And he began to eat.  
  
Many moments later, he heard a large plunk. A definitive plunk. He was fuller than he had ever been. The melodious rock was beginning to deign away into a place beyond earshot. A whisper "see you soon" in his ear, and one by one the fairies stole away into the darkness. One lingered in front of him. It was a deep peach, and after a moment turned a bright red before shooting up the stairs. He figured this was a not so subtle hint he should follow.  
  
Link walked up several staircases. There seemed to be nothing but the rocks, the stairs and the water. He heard a gentle hum. It grew larger when he reached the top layer. It was lit by white light that came, oddly enough, from two small waterfalls that sat on each side of an ancient desk. The fairy woman from the forest was tracing a passage in a book with her fingers and her lips, but when she saw Link she closed and flashed teeth that seemed brighter than the lights behind her.  
  
"Have a seat", she said. Link noticed a glass chair that was to the just left of her desk, but he wasn't all that sure it was there a second ago. Maybe he missed it. He was too full to dwell on it.  
  
"Thank you", he muttered, as he sat down. And she smiled at him. It was impossible not to smile back. What a beautiful woman. Or was it a fairy? Sure was pretty, Link thought- and with horror he realized a frown aimed at him at this point was more than likely fatal.  
  
"I suppose you are wondering why I wanted you here."  
  
Link raised his hand in objection. That was oddly polite, he thought but he actually said "Ma'am?"  
  
"Call me Relic, my dear.", she grinned at him.  
  
"R-relic. I didn't decide to go here. I was taking a girl here. She said she had business with you, and I."  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"I was wondering if you've heard or seen a fairy called Navi. She was my own fairy, and and", he caught himself gushing on a bit at the mouth, "she just left."  
  
Relic got up, brushed her hair back over her shoulder, and walked towards the bright waterfall and played with it in her hand. "First of all, you don't, won't, and can't ever own a fairy. We are beyond your life, and we'd outlive any master. If we find ourselves in servitude, it's simple. Our kind simply wait for your kind to die. And then we are free again." She moved next to him, and she seemed to have some idea of what a miserable pile of meat she made Link feel. She kneeled beside him, and put her hand over his. "But I have seen Navi, and rest assured. She is well as can be expected"  
  
"Where is she?"  
  
"She is running an errand for me. In Hyrule. "  
  
"Do you know why she left?" Link gulped down the question, he didn't want the answer.  
  
"Yes, she feared you failed your mission. And at the time, I called her paranoid."  
  
At the time, thought Link?  
  
"Now, I have begun to think something was wrong.  
  
She pulled a jug of milk from under her desk. She poured it all over her desk. It covered the knotted wood, coloring it loose and ivory. It vibrated softly whenever Relic spoke. "Hold this", she told Link. She picked up a quill and inkwell and placed it softly in Link's hand.  
  
As Link grasped it, she pulled out the pen, and softly, dipped the tip in the middle of the desk. It spread sickly throughout the desk. "When a young person sees this, he feels it is irreparable. Tainted. But, to an old person, they know that all it takes is just a bit more milk." She spilled forth more, and returned everything to ivory. The canister didn't seem any less empty than it was earlier. "What Navi saw, and told me, was that when some good was brought in to face the darkness, the darkness didn't go away. And this troubled her greatly. We fairies can see beyond your life, and when we serve you it is to better the world. But when the good of the world is the Hero of Time, and the darkness remains. ", she hesitated. "What she saw was that something had gone wrong. And that it would grow again." She waved her hand over the desk, and from the middle came a sudden spiderlike web of black that corrupted all other color, and then it grew beyond grey.  
  
"This is why I asked Terryn to come here.", she said. "Navi may be perceptive, but Terryn is gifted in this matter. The world speaks directly to her, and through that she comes incredibly astute in things that have yet to happen. As far as to why I let Terryn bring you, well, I can say that I've wanted to meet you. And you should understand that I let few things happen by chance or mistake. "  
  
The boy sat still. He felt a bit foolish at this point. "What do you want me to do?", he asked.  
  
"I want you to stop chasing fairies, Link."  
  
Hyrule.  
  
It was a meal fit for a king. The wise king of Hyrule, of course, eats like this every day. And a wise nobleman, in purple colors of peace, goodwill, and wealth sat next to him and chewed the fat most approvingly. His mouth spoke of peace and of settling discrepancies about who owed what to whom. His eyes and drool fixated on the fair blonde sitting on the other side of the king. She toyed her finger around the ring of a chalice, completely bored.  
  
"And I wish this visit was in happier days" he said to the king.  
  
"Indeed," said the king. He drank deeper than his voice spoke.  
  
"Princess Zelda," The dark haired stranger muttered, "I hope these affairs do not bore you."  
  
She smiled politely at him, "Dear sir, I am merely overwhelmed with the arrival of so many strangers and friends to our great land."  
  
The king interrupted, "Yes, well, we will board much more nobility by the end of the month. The more the merrier, eh Springfield?  
  
Springfield seemed flustered and ran his fingers through his black hair. He smiled approvingly at the king, and after a sip of wine "and much more important travelers than me, dearest liege."  
  
"Well," muttered the king, beginning to feel the effects of the bubbles in the ale, "I doubt the guildsmen of the west have much to say about nobility, say how it allows them to engage in the life of a rabbit."  
  
Neither the princess nor the handsome noble seemed to get the joke, so they smiled politely at the king and then at each other.  
  
"Dear king," Springfield breathed in deeply "May I ask your permission to dance with your daughter?" Zelda stared at him seriously, without humor or flirtation. He couldn't help but wince slightly. She smiled then. "It would be a pleasure, dear sir."  
  
And the two headed after the table, hand in hand.  
  
Terryn sat on top of the dry chestnut desk. Her eyes had rolled to the back of a head. She clutched her fingers deep in a patch of grass Relic had given her. "There."  
  
Relic sat across from her "Go on dear"  
  
"There are whispers of murder. Footsteps of an assassin. And those of a thief, a thief, a thief, and darkness. Many jewels are going to pass hands, and she will fall. Everything should be in its right place, ,but it doesn't feel right", she shook her head and began to sob into her lap.  
  
"Terryn, continue," Relic was on her feet now. Link shifted oddly in his seat, and was getting restless. She shuddered, and then turned to him. "None of that now, Link. Please."  
  
Terryn threw her head back up and moaned. It was ungodly and she sounded ill. "Great danger is coming to our Land, and a young woman is all that can stop it. She has great wisdom in her, and soon her guts will spill over the floor like a sheep's innards. Her insides will rot and her eyes will mold over in her-"  
  
Relic's eyes flashed. "That's enough." Terryn whimpered began to sob again, not bothering to move her head up. She got up, and waved her hand in front of her. Terryn crawled up and began to sleep.  
  
Link stared at his feet. His hands were clutched. Relic sighed and placed both her hands on the ends of her desk, supporting herself up. "Soil doesn't lie, Link. It tells the tales of all that walk on it. You know what you have to do. Leave at once. Please." She walked over placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry to ask you to do this."  
  
"No, it's ok," he said. He got up and smiled. He padded the hilt of his sword. "I'll go and do the job. Can't be harder than last time, right?" He bit his trembling lip and turned the other way. As he almost fell down from where the stairs were, "I think I'll walk you two out." Relic grinned at him.  
  
You two? thought Link. 


	5. Strange Nights, Stranger Mornings

Strange Nights.  
  
The moon fell into a river And carried quickly to the ocean, And soon t' will be swallowed by a whale,  
  
Who spits it back into the sky  
  
When deeds must be done, And done at night without fail.  
  
~Drinking song (once very popular)  
  
Springfield was a cunning dancer. His feet moved like spilled mercury. But even with this impressive display, he was only just able to keep up with the princess. Her articulate movements made a once popular dance with an inordinately slow beat into a display of her cobbler's ability to fashion a most impressive heel.  
  
Its light ivory heel kicked her small ankle up in a way that made her look as tho she were pushing herself out of a bath, calm and graceful. She danced in the old fashion. A complex series of formal movements around the partner, it was once considered an indication of flirtation to dance around one's partner in this way. Springfield smiled at the challenge of it all.  
  
It was when the dance changed over to a subtle nocturne, all the stars had crept up and twinkled in the sky, that the young nobleman took the princess off the dance floor and to the balcony.  
  
He quickly into her eyes and flashed a not so innocent grin through long dark brown strands of hair. He looked like a writer, albeit a very successful one. He hadn't quite the smile of one who writes sonnets. She shyly smiled back and looked over the terrace and to the green expanse. He put his arm around her. She let him.  
  
Link sneezed fitfully. He, Relic, and Terryn walked along the dark catacombs. Relic was emanating a slightly blue light, and when she smiled at Link, it hurt his eyes. Terryn spoke up, "I don't think I want to go to Hyrule."  
  
"But you must", said the faerie softly, "once you start going somewhere, you can't go back. It's like trying to stop falling. You don't fall down and right yourself exactly where you stood."  
  
"He does." Said Terryn acidly, pointing at Link. He shrugged indifferently, although he was fairly sure she was smiling when she said that.  
  
"He's---special." Relic offered.  
  
"Thanks, I think," said Link. He wasn't paying a terrible amount of attention to them. He was staring at his left big toe, now peaking through his boot affirmatively. "Which way is north?"  
  
"Once we get out, you'll want to go right, and you'll find the exact direction once the sun comes up?"  
  
"Yea, I know where Hyrule is... eight months if we're lucky."  
  
Terryn snorted. That didn't appeal to her at all. "I don't want to spend eight months with him leading the horse. He pulls left."  
  
"I do not! Epona does." Link offered, but felt guilty for saying it. Did he pull left? He wondered silently, irritated with himself and his company.  
  
A large moan filled the cavern and traveled away from them. It was a low guttural groan, and tiny pebbles shook on the dirt floor. The first thud occurred. The second. The third one didn't happen for another minute, but it seemed very close.  
  
Terryn drew closer to Relic, who held her akin to how a mother might when her child is afraid of something that was rather commonplace. For example, a windmill. "Link, could you?"  
  
"Could I what?" asked Link.  
  
Relic glared at him, then with her eyes motioned down the dark pathway. Link glumly took out his sword and went into the darkness. "I can't see".  
  
Relic swore in a dead tongue, and spat on the ground. Smoke and dirt sizzled where she spat. Smoke sputtered and the ground sparked. A glass lamp, curved like a woman, rose with a bright blue flame in its center that hummed steadily. "Hurry!" she hissed. He looked back but twice, and on the second time he had noticed that Relic and Terryn were not to be seen but lost in the darkness.  
  
Link picked up the lamp and ran. He was racing along a pathway and the moans and hums grew louder.  
  
In regards to the monster's appearance, Link first heard it. With the rumbles of the cave, he could feel scratchy steps run and then a sudden wet thwack against rock wall. It grew louder and soon the hairs on Link's head moved with each thunderous noise. Link hadn't seen the creature; he had tasted it. The air was rancid and putrid, and it hit his tongue before his nostrils. It buckled his stance and stopped his pace. A particularly violent bile taste had hit the back of his throat as he ran, and his tongue violently wretched at the sensation. He felt like vomiting, and dry heaved and was instantly repulsed by the foul rotten orange stench in his nose. He realized he was on a path overlooking a lower level, and only when it was too late did he realize he was falling over. It was in the sure din of the lamp that fell nearby that he saw the creature.  
  
Its body was like that of a pear with a giant mouth ripped across its base. It was a lurid purple; not that of flowers, but the kind you'd find in the robes of a holy man who was murdered on pilgrimage and found facedown in a marsh a fortnight later. It had no eyes. Its feet were less feet than purple stubs encrusted in a layer of dirt. It had no arms. If it ever did, the mouth had long since stretched its length and chewed them off.  
  
A sick mouth was filled with yellow teeth. Unsightly pocks of honey-colored sores bruised the teeth most unnaturally. The teeth had bubbles in them as if pregnant with infection. All seemed cracked and cut like the knives of a very mad dungeon master who never cleaned the blood off his rusting shards of metal. Globs of steaming drool fell, mostly the color of sewer water. It bellowed once more, and ran hard into the wall near Link.  
  
It breathed heavily after this, and this turned into a wheeze... it wheezed until it was within knifepoint of Link. The smell was nauseating, and it made him dizzy and weak. A sick putrid tongue came out, and it was covered in boils and welts that oozed a syrupy substance. It lashed and poked in Link's direction. He dove to avoid it. It threw his considerable weight against him.  
  
The whack did clear Link's head of some of the pain. The nausea was replaced with considerable pain, but now he could see straight. When next it lunged, Link leapt (and this is not without some doing, mind you) over the creature, dragging his sword low across the beast. Blood that looked like coffee sprayed out, and it ran again at Link.  
  
This time he had the advantage, and as it tried desperately to bite him in two, he darted away, and thrust his sword into it's top half. He turned the blade slowly into a fleshy sheath to make sure it got the point. The purple creature turned its attention into throwing weight against Link, holding him. Suffocating, Link dove the blade deeper. It met no bone, just fleshy darkness. He began ramming it in as he began to realize what lungs were, and how much they hurt. Soon, although no one was there to see it, a tiny hint of metal poked through the other side.  
  
The creature ran hard into Link, knocking the wind and the sword away from him.  
  
The rock wall he fell against was increasingly painful, and his body felt dizzy  
  
and numb at first. As he fell and tried to reclaim breath, his side began to itch  
  
and sting. The entire right side of his tunic now was now was gone, replaced with  
  
maggots. The rice sized yellow things moved in a dizzying stir. Bits of what was  
  
once green-brown tunic were being napped up. Some were eating his side too, and  
  
his side began to shiver at the hundreds of stings. He ripped his tunic off  
  
maniacally, brushing and clawing at his side. Most of the top part of the tunic  
  
shredded almost too easily and took most of the maggots with it. He was getting  
  
most of the maggots off, and just when he felt the worst was over, the creature  
  
lunged at him again, this time hitting him in the head.  
  
He fell backwards, and for a short while there was silence. He could hear the  
  
creature shuffling its feet, and the sounds of maggots choking on ashen rock  
  
floor. His head hurt. His backside hurt, and there was a noticeably cold  
  
and annoying sensation. He realized he had landed on the hilt of is sword. The creature was near. Link rolled and stabbed at where his ears told him the creature was. He let  
  
the knife dive in. When the first bits of blood squirted Link in the face, the  
  
creature let out a painful moo-ing sound, and rushed against him, crushing Link  
  
against its own weight and the cave. Link felt what little air was left rush in  
  
and out of him, and his vision was specked with yellow fireflies. He choked. He  
  
also refused to let go of the sword, forcing it in. Suddenly, the blade wetly  
  
poked through the other side, and with a horrible squishing noise the creature  
  
grew limp and staggered. Link fell down a couple feet, his sword fatally in the  
  
beast,  
  
It howled horrendously, and then Link grew very worried. The blade seemed to melt  
  
away in the creature's dome. Link arcs of silver liquid dripped down the  
  
creature, like candle wax. Slowly, it hardened. The purple head bubbled over like  
  
pewter and of several bubbles rose a crown of spikes. Link thought that part  
  
looked somewhat familiar, at least. They were spikes in shape of his blade. The  
  
metal drips began to solidify, creating what appeared to be a tight metal cage  
  
around the creature.  
  
When it moved against the metal, it's skin dove under the cage like soft cheese.  
  
It drooled heavily. The creature charged, raging at Link. It grinded loosely against it's fast-hardened cage of its own making. It roiled and charged again at Link. With no weapons, and little chance, Link grabbed the blue din and ran. He could feel it charging. The creature was big, Link thought, but not entirely coordinated. It continuously BONKed and BAMMed against the catacombs. It was after some time that Link saw a small blue light. His feet felt damp. Soon did Link find out that he was in fact, sitting in the beginning of a rather impressive river. It's a small trickling from the caverns, which sat elevated in the midst of the mist... and through a series of tributaries and several lakes, one would be seeing the smoke above Death Mountain on the horizon. At the present time, Link came to different revelations. The creature, stammering forth, was clearly blind and insane. Its monstrous tongue whipped in the side of the mouth, independent of any other movements or directions. It's purple side had become to turn red and volcanic; ashen pumice pocking its skin with each brushing. Link saw the sky's deep navy glint, and realized he was out of the cave. He saw no stars, the trees were too tall and thick. But the air was noticeably cleaner and more refreshing. The river opened up. Swimming through it seemed a good idea. The creature grew near, and bucked a mushy stump of a foot on a rock and fell face down into the water's yaw. Link clung to the shore and closed his eyes. The scream was terrible. Slowly the creature turned into water. Bits of rock and blood and pus fell off and disintegrated in the water. The trees moved at the dying cries. It sounded purely awful, miserable, and sad. Link thought he heard the disenchanted moan of an old woman, lost in the many octaves and tones the creature shrieked. Before long, the mouth was pulled wide and stretched in half. Soon, there was nothing left but the gleam of something floating in the water. Then nothing.. Link sat in the cool water and listened. After a while he pulled himself up. His side had stopped bleeding, for the most part. His rib cage was red and swollen, and looked like he had pox. Relic appeared from the forest. Terrryn was tending to Epona. Link was soaked. She was holding a satchel, and only her eyes glowed. Link stumbled towards her, and saw that her face was wet. "I'm sorry", she said. She shivered. "For what?" "Terryn?" Relic turned her head to the girl and horse, who took the hint at once and walked in the opposite direction. Link handed her the lamp, and with a great flash it was no more. Relic glowed a smile at him. "Let's walk, Link. So how do you think you did against that creature?" "I don't know what that was..." "It was my... pet." Link stopped and flashed anger. "Who keeps such things?" "I do, by and by. It was a Mora. In the old days, that meant sea. In the days after that, it meant clay. They were always rare. Hard to kill, as you've seen. I regret you had to do it, but it was old and confused." Her head hung low. Link felt it didn't suit her. "Then why did I have to?" "- Terryn shouldn't be exposed to such things." Relic sounded very old then. Link wondered how old she must be. "She's just a nice young girl. Bright, energetic, and doesn't know what's good for her. She thinks she does. But I won't let my problem get in her way. So I hid her from it " "It didn't do a lot of good" Link snapped, "it destroyed my sword and my tunic." "I can help you with the tunic." Relic said. She smiled in a way that made Link feel uneasy. They walked on, until Link saw the beginnings of a valley. The trees were smaller, and stars began to peek. "I want you to safely deliver Terryn to Hyrule's court. There is a gathering there. You might find a sympathetic ear. More than likely, however, you will not. You do want to go back to Hyrule, yes?" Link thought for a second. "Yes." "Why?" "I don't know, a lot of things. I liked it there best, I suppose." He said it in a way that he hoped the fairy queen would pick up on and drop the subject. She did. They heard Epona whinny at the edge of the forest. Terryn yawned and scratched the horse's mane. "This is where I leave you, don't fail me Link. Please. I would have done this myself, but" Relic sounded terse and shaken as they walked towards the horse, "I cannot hide myself well enough to deliver her safely. I trust you, Link.  
  
She handed Link a package. "You two have fun. Terryn, you take good care of him." "I will." said Terryn sleepily. Link wondered what that all meant. He went behind a tree, and took a long, satisfying piss. Then he opened the new satchel. In it was a new tunic and boots. It was dark brown, like wet bark from the inside of the tree. It was lighter than his old tunic, but it did fit better. The new boots slid on nicely. The hat was too big, and hung loosely just above his eyes. He picked up the satchel, and in the night saw a blue dot moving through the trees back in the direction they had come. He walked over to his horse and they rode til the sky turned the green of dawn and day. Deep within the forests of Hyrule, a Gerudo thief was sitting around a fire. She was cold, unaccustomed to the temperature. Her jewelery tinkled with each shiver. It had not been a good night. She counted her earnings. Just to make sure. It was the same--- all thirty two rupees of it.. Common pickpockets had better nights than this. She would use it, she thought, to buy a shawl for herself; ordinary and more subtle. Pick up more money in busy markets. She hated competition, and the roads of this kingdom were fast becoming more dangerous than a Gerudo. Well, she thought, former Gerudo. That's what you get for stealing. Oh one rupee is harmless. How painful would four be? Who'd know? The stupid bitch had reported her out for forgetting guard duty, not theft. But when she was startled, she confessed to everything straightaway before realizing her mistake. Now who's the stupid bitch, she thought. She spat into the embers.. The world rustled. Very quietly, the hairs on her body rised, and she cocked her head just slightly. An arrow whispered past her ear, and landed in the fire. There was next to no time before the next move. A single curved blade held by a man in a red cloak swung at her. His sword went sideways to cleave off her head. Her hand went up. Blade met flesh, then bone, then flesh again in swift, sure motion. It fell loosely. The red rider staggered forth, reaching out for the hand. As he fell to his knees, the thief was gone. Arrows sang through the air around her escape. One went through her shoulder. Bastards, she thought, they had manipulated the arrows to go through, not to stick in. It would be worse to stick in, but it left a horribly small gushing of blood. She bit her lip until that too did bleed. The trees mostly met the barrage, though, providing an excellent cover for her escape. Soon, the thunks of trees falling was heard. Several assassins adorned in red robes cleaved through trees with clean motions, while two lept from tree to tree, shooting their deadly arsenal mid-flight. The trees fell in one swoop. A savage roaring could be heard. One particularly homicidal rider, holding his right stump in towards his stomach, was running faster and practically going through the trees he fell. An arrow met an ankle, and she began to stumble forth. Their awful noise could be heard. She caught her foot in an old root. She struggled to free it. Very quickly, the root grew and wrapped around her. Then it pulled her body into a large bush. "shhh" said the bush. "I am a spirit. Do not make any noise, please?" The thief nodded slowly, eyes welling up. The riders were very near. They passed by.  
  
The forest woke up. Roots, vines, and branches wasted no time in trying to grab the riders. They slashed through them irritably, and the riders stopped their pursuit. A tree began to moan, "What business do you have in my forest." It was not a question. The Deku Tree was downright irritable. Most men would have been mortified to see an impressive oak the size of a small outpost chastising them, but the riders were an indignant lot. One walked up to the tree, and said, in a low rasp, "Murderers." "Lies," the tree said. "I see no murderers but what's in front of me. Tell me why I shouldn't fling you from this place." The rider reached into his cloak, and pulled out a decorative ornament on a chain. It was silver. Three conjoined triangles to form a larger triangle, with another triangular space in the middle. The leaves of the Deku Tree shook. "What proof do you have?" "She is an assassin. Sworn to kill the Princess Zelda in the name of the Thief King." "I asked for proof, rider, not for identity." A bush rustled in agreement. Heads turned. "You are wasting our time!!" A rider, a bit larger than the others, slashed horribly at the Deku's base. And they ran off. This time they didn't stop for the trees. Another crimson knight shot an arrow lit with fire at a bush. The flame grew. "Run" said the spirit. The roots loosened, and she fell to the ground. She saw a large thin tree to hide behind. As she was about to turn around it, she stopped. A knife found her stomach. It twisted. A branch lashed out and knocked her killer away like so much pebble skipping on the water. "LEAVE." The forest became increasingly deadly. But it didn't matter. The riders stole into the night. Her feet slid and she fell into the mud. Her toes grew fresh white roots. The branch caressed her. "I'm sorry," said the tree king. Her skin hardened. Before not very long at all, there was a small tree in the forest. It had curves in it, and it's branches arced down and upwards. Embedded in its trunk and branches were jewels of the desert that shone brightly in the moonlight 


End file.
